One Week Until World Congress of Families XI Budapest Family Summit – IOF WEEKLY

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IOF Weekly — One Week Until World Congress of Families XI Budapest

President’s Message

Dear Friend of the Family:

The World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit is just one week away, May 25-28. There is still time to register so if you haven’t done so already, please make your plans to join us. Basic registration is free.

We will come to Budapest from different countries, cultures, and religions. But we will gather at the World Congress of Families in unity to celebrate and affirm a timeless truth: the family. The family is a fundamental and natural reality, a truth so deeply embedded in who we are that to deny it is to deny reality itself. We will gather to affirm the beauty of the simple truth that men and women are made for each other, that children are a great blessing to family and nation, that human life is beautiful and sacred. It will be an awe-inspiring event.

International Family News

The Power of the World Congress of Families: Celebrating 20 Years
By E. Douglas Clark
Director of UN and International Policy

“It was at the World Congress of Families in Madrid,” explains IOF President Brian Brown of his experience in 2012, “that I realized first-hand the power of the worldwide pro-family movement. Under the bluest of Spanish skies, with laughter and song as our backdrop, thousands of parents and children, politicians and activists of diverse backgrounds, religions, and nationalities all united together under the banner of that most powerful of human goods: the natural family. I’ve been to every Congress since Madrid, and I’ve been blessed to have the chance to work closely with the pro-family leaders I first met there. I’ve witnessed first-hand how WCF has equipped the next generation of leaders to go back to their countries and stand boldly for the immutable truths of family, life, and faith.”

Brian’s experience is hardly unique. Thousands from around the world have been similarly inspired and empowered by our World Congresses, which began in Prague in 1997 and have continued over the years in Geneva, Mexico City, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Madrid, Sydney, Salt Lake City, and last year in Tbilisi. Now, 20 years after the Congress in Prague, WCF is returning to Eastern Europe to partner with the nation of Hungary in the World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit on May 25-28, 2017.

Through the efforts of founder Dr. Allan Carlson and managing director Larry Jacobs, IOF’s World Congress of Families has become the planet’s largest and most influential pro-family gathering of officials, leaders, scientists, scholars, and concerned citizens. “It has a huge impact,” declared Ellen Sauerbrey, who served as US Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women and later as head of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. As described by Dr. Paige Patterson, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, “The World Congress is doing the most important work in the world, protecting God’s plan for humanity through the most important institution of society.”

To our last World Congress in Tbilisi, former president George W. Bush sent an official welcome message: “Around the world, families provide that beacon of freedom and the source of help, hope, and stability for individuals and nations. As one of the pillars of civilization and the bulwark of liberty, families must remain strong and we must defend them…. I commend your efforts to recognize the importance of families in building nations. Your work improves many lives and makes the world better.”

As IOF marches forward to make the world better with its World Congress of Families and other programs, we invite you to stand with us in defense of those “immutable truths of family, life, and faith.”

CELEBRATE FAMILY: Uptofaith World Congress of Families Flashmob Dance

Do you have a few minutes? Is FAMILY important to you? Join us to the UptoFaith global flashmob for FAMILIES! Make a FAMILY sign with your friends (creativity counts! – painting on board or T-shirt, forming the letters with a few people, etc.), record it on video, and upload it to social media with the #uptofaith2017 hashtag from 24 to 28 May!

Be part of the global flashmob UptoFaith that is dedicated to raise attention on FAMILIES!

Do you have more time? Join us to the global dance, do your own choreography or the UptoFaith choreography from 24 to 28 May, record it on video and upload on social media with the #uptofaith2017 hashtag as well!

There is Still Time to Register for WCF XI, The Budapest Family Summit, May 25-28, 2017, Budapest, Hungary

The 2017 WCF XI Congress, “The Budapest Family Summit” will bring together thousands of attendees to hear from dozens of prominent speakers, including scholars, researchers, political leaders, faith leaders and elected officials. Basic registration to attend the Congress is free, but VIP Registration is also available for a fee for those who wish to attend special events, dinners, access to speakers, networking opportunities and many other benefits.

The International Organization for the Family (IOF) depends on voluntary contributions from individuals, businesses and organizations to support its work. IOF receives no government funding of any kind. IOF is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to protect and promote the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ‘seedbed’ of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights).